Want to work in FRC?

Blog Date:

Tuesday, July 2, 2013 - 12:47

We’ve got two exciting full time job openings in FRC that were recently posted, one for a Mechanical Engineer and one for a Software Engineer. You can find the details here: http://www.usfirst.org/aboutus/employment. You don’t need to enter any search terms on the web page, just click the ‘Search’ button at the bottom of the ‘Job Listings’ section and you will be able to find them quickly in the list.

Here’s the overview of the Mechanical Engineer position:

“As a member of the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) engineering team this individual will work collaboratively with the Game Design Committee to help develop and prototype the FRC field and game components used at FRC events. Incumbent will be involved with the final design and documentation of all mechanical aspects of the FRC Field.”

And the overview of the Software Engineer position:

“As a member of the Engineering team, this individual is involved with the design and development of electrical and software engineering aspects of the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). Work in conjunction with the FRC Engineering team, Game Design Committee (GDC), and external developers to create prototype field and game components and robot systems for use in FIRST events.”

These two positions will have a direct impact on the ongoing success of FRC, and we’re hoping to see some very enthusiastic and qualified candidates. See the website for all the details and how to apply.

While the Mechanical Engineer is an addition to our team, unfortunately, the Software Engineer is a replacement for Ryan Foley, who is leaving our engineering staff after nearly 3 years of hard work. Among other things, Ryan was principal programmer for the touchscreen interfaces used on the field the last three years, designed and programmed the radio Kiosk software, and was a co-author of the 2012 Einstein report, as well as being one of the engineers sitting in our ‘Mission Control’ every weekend official FRC events were taking place to keep everyone on track. Ryan is leaving FRC to pursue a new career opportunity in Maine, and so he can work more closely with the growing robotics community up there. As FRC staff members, while we get to see the big-picture impact of our work, which is very satisfying, we often miss out on the more local team-level work, which comes with its own set of rewards. We thank Ryan for all his hard work and wish him the best of luck!

I’ll blog again soon. [Note: There will be no Frank Answers Friday this week. We’ll pick it up again next week.]

Frank

[Sidebar: New Hampshire State Legislators get paid $100 per year, and haven’t had a pay raise since 1889.]